The AHI EDI Special Project
Overview
As your distributor of professional animal health products, we participate in a program that allows
us to communicate sales data electronically, directly to manufacturers. This program, called the
AHI EDI Special Project, helps expedite the sales reporting process, which means quicker
turnaround on incentive program payments for you, and better business decisions for us.
Today, over 230 animal health distributor partners securely provide daily sales reporting to the
AHI EDI Special Project for 10 of the leading manufacturers in animal health.
How It Works
Sales Data: Distributor --> Data Clearinghouse --> Manufacturers
We submit invoice-level sales data in a secure format electronically, either over the Internet or by
manually entering the sales information directly online. The data is validated at a central data
clearinghouse, using approved Project rules and guidelines. Once authenticated, the data is
distributed to each respective manufacturer participating in the Project.
The HIN System
The AHI EDI Special Project relies on the use of common customer identifiers. The Project uses
the Health Industry Number (HIN) as the industry standard for identifying every facility, delivery
location and business activity in the animal health supply chain. That means that, rather than
supplying our internal customer code, we use a standardized HIN when we report sales to the
Project. HIN’s provide an unambiguous means of identifying the common customers of trading
partners without the maintaining multiple cross-references.
The HIN System is maintained in a common, centralized database that is administered by the
Health Industry Business Communications Council (HIBCC). HIBCC is an industrysponsored non-profit standards development organization, which was founded by major
healthcare associations in 1983 and is accredited by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI).
HIBCC incorporates a standard protocol of business practices to ensure the security and integrity
of the HIN System. HIN requests and updates must undergo three processing steps before they
can be incorporated into the HIN database.
• HIBCC checks all information for both completeness and conformance to HIBCC name and
address standards.
• HIBCC staff verifies each HIN request by phone, to confirm the name and address
information with the entity in question.
• HIBCC reviews the current HIN database to ensure that a HIN does not already exist for the
entity in question.
Your Part in the Project
You may receive a phone call from HIBCC, in an attempt to verify your business name, address,
and type. Please cooperate with this request, as this will expedite our ability to do business with
you.
Any information you provide or confirm is strictly confidential and is used only for the enumeration
of an identification code. You can feel secure your information is not accessible by the general
public.
Participating Manufacturers
Currently participating in the AHI EDI Special Project:
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Abbott Laboratories
Bayer HealthCare LLC
Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.
Elanco Animal Health
IDEXX Corporation
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Merck Animal Health
Merial Limited
Novartis Animal Health
Virbac Animal Health
Zoetis
For more information on the AHI EDI Special Project, please contact Brigid Zeller at the Animal Health
Institute, 202-637-2440 ext. 1011 or at bzeller@ahi.org